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Thank you to all our partners!

Ms. Wafaa Sobhy, President of ANIMA Investment Network, assesses the Invest in Med project that lasted three years and presents the on-going co-operaton .

Dear partners,
Dear supporters of the Invest in Med project,

The Invest in Med project has been administratively closed on the November 30th 2011. On behalf of the MedAlliance, the consortium in charge of implementing this project, which associates ANIMA as co-ordinator, ASCAME, BUSINESSMED, EUROCHAMBRES, GIZ, UNIDO and EPA Euroméditerranée, I would like to thank all the partners and the operators who contributed in this project. We also would like to thank the European Commission for their support and co-operation in the implementation of this project, and particularly the DG DEVCO which is in charge of implementing the external co-operation of the European Union, as well as the City of Marseille and the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region for their continuous contribution.

The mobilization of your organisations and staff have led to impressive results which go beyond our initial expectations: 350 operations implemented in 40 months associating 298 organisations; 14,000 individual business meetings organised; 4,000 staff trained and about 2,000 business partnership under negotiation, to focus on the quantitative aspect.

But this project has also initiated a refreshing co-operative movement between public and private organisations from Europe and the Southern rim of the Mediterranean. Despite a difficult political context, and in an uncertain economic environment, intermediate organisations have shown their capacity to move on with the Euro-Mediterranean co-operation, and pull the economic integration of the region, at their level.

This co-operation is now ongoing. Some of the initiatives launched by Invest in Med are being pursued by their partners, and new co-operations emerged from the connections which were permitted by the project. The MedAlliance partners have already taken the commitment to move on with their partnership through their other activities, and contribute to a joint action plan for SMEs and economic development in the Mediterranean, in co-ordination with the institutions and the organisations already active in the region. We would be most grateful to receive your feedback and contributions before the end of this year, as well as any proposition of activity to be implemented in the future.

To pay back, our efforts have to be consistent and planned with a long term perspective. This is how we planned the Invest in Med project: improve the outreach and efficiency of the public and private business and investment supporting actors through capacity building, and by starting an unprecedented multilateral co-operation between these field operators and civil society organisations from Europe and the Southern Mediterranean, to diffuse new methods for supporting entrepreneurs in the region, to initiate pan Euro-Mediterranean cluster co-operations on major business sectors, and to contribute positioning the Euromed as a global business destination. In consequence, most of the web facilitation services for business and investment observatories developed by the project will remain, and we ask our network members to remain mobilised for new initiatives which are under preparation.

We wish you the best for the future of your co-operations!

Wafaa Sobhy President of ANIMA Investment Network